The Booth
by jda
Summary: A charity carnival put on by the LVPD, Sara, a kissing booth, three CSI men, and a lab tech. Do the math!


I missed getting reviews, so this is my one hour fix for that. I hope you like it!  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in relation to the show CSI except for this story that I'm writing for the enjoyment of whoever reads this. (Come on, I know everyone knows this!)  
  
Summery: A charity carnival put on by the LVPD, Sara, a kissing booth, three CSI men, and a lab tech. Do the math!  
  
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"How did I get roped into this?" Sara muttered out loud to Catherine.  
  
"Get roped into what?" the blond woman asked in confusion.  
  
"The kissing booth. What else would I be complaining about?" Sara responded with an even more bitter tone. She was, of course, referring to the charity carnival and how Brass managed to persuade her, despite all her arguments, to help them in that particular way.  
  
"They figured that CSI women wouldn't try to kill some guy who tried to suck out our saliva," Catherine answered with a wry grin. "I guess they forgot that we know how to clean up a crime scene." She looked around the dilapidated wooden box that they were calling a "booth". There was a large metal box firmly secured to the ground, so no one could steal it, for the money. Beside it, was one folding metal chair. And behind those two items, was a hand painted, slightly overused sign saying, "Kissing Booth" in bright pink letters over a comical pair of lips.  
  
"Okay, then," Sara shot back, "I guess that makes sense, but why did they have to do this in the parking lot of the police department? There is no dignity left in this whole thing."  
  
"Well," Catherine said, as she thought up an appropriate response, "the police department, because it's easier to book someone for public misconduct or that sort of thing, and as for the lack of dignity, I guess it's all what you make of it. Come on, Sara, where's your enthusiasm? This is for your favorite charity!"  
  
"I left my enthusiasm at home."  
  
"Well, that's not going to get you any money for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Las Vegas. I'm leaving."  
  
"What!? Cath, you said that you'd stay here with me!"  
  
"I did, three hours ago, for a little while, and since you seem to have settled in, I'm leaving. I promised Lindsey that we'd go around together."  
  
"Thanks a lot, Catherine," Sara growled, frowning and narrowing her eyes in mock anger, "Just what I want: to be alone in a kissing booth surrounded by men drowning in their testosterone."  
  
Catherine just smirked at her melodramatic tone, and said, "With looks like yours, you're going to have to beat the guys to stay off of your lap!"  
  
"And wouldn't that be fun!" Greg exclaimed as he, Warrick, Nick and Grissom came over to them.  
  
Sara just moaned, put her head in her hands, and said something that sounded vaguely like, "Just shoot me now."  
  
Nick joined in with Greg's teasing, and said, "Well, Sara, what would the fun be in that? I still want to buy a kiss from you." Sara didn't respond verbally, but she did send a glare that could have easily killed him, had her eyes been lasers. "Whoa," Nick laughed, "Down girl. I didn't know you were rabid!"  
  
"Oh, you are so going to pay for that some day, Stokes," Sara warned.  
  
"Well, if I have to pay, I'd like that to be rewarded with a kiss," Nick replied, not taking her hint and backing off.  
  
Sara looked like she was ready to jump him and beat the living daylights out of him, when Grissom broke the tension. "How much do you have to donate to get a kiss?" he asked. His unorthodox question earned him incredulous stares from all the younger CSIs. Other than Sara, the others suspected that their boss did have some romantic feelings for their counterpart.  
  
"What?" Sara asked pointedly, still irritated by the way Nick was egging her on.  
  
"I said-" Grissom began, but was interrupted by the aforesaid annoyed woman.  
  
"I heard you," she replied icily, now remembering how he had turned down her dinner invitation a couple of months before. Anger at Grissom replaced her annoyance at Nick. Composing herself a bit, she continued, "It's by donation, so pay whatever you want. I get to decide what type of kiss you get." She screwed her mouth, as though the idea was like that of kissing a frog and not getting the prince.  
  
"Huh?" Warrick, who had been quiet for the entire exchange until that moment, asked blankly.  
  
"We're trying to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club. It would only be logical that you get more if you pay more."  
  
"Get more if you pay more?" Warrick echoed in bewilderment. "You make it sound less than innocent, that way, Sara." He grinned at her to indicate that he was just trying to lighten her mood by poking fun at her.  
  
Her reaction was what he had hoped for. "Shut up!" she said, trying to fight the smile that was threatening to light up her whole face. She failed miserably at that. Instead of saying anything else, she resorted to smacking him on the arm quite hard.  
  
"Hey!" Warrick complained, rubbing his sore arm, "I was just trying to keep you from killing these two . . . okay, maybe three, over here." He pointed to their boss and Nick and Greg, who all looked slightly ashamed for their prior actions.  
  
"Fine. I forgive you. All of you," Sara conceded, "But you all have to make a donation now."  
  
"Only if we get that kiss," Greg replied with a hopeful look.  
  
"Fine."  
  
"Sweet!"  
  
"Greg. Shut up, or I may just change my mind."  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"Okay," Sara said, "who wants to be the first one?"  
  
"I will," Grissom replied, fishing out a ten dollar bill from his wallet.  
  
Sara's calm façade fell momentarily at the thought of having to kiss her boss. The same boss who she was trying to get out of her head. She quickly recovered, though, and spotting the bill, asked, "That's what you want to donate?"  
  
"Yeah. Is that all right?" Grissom asked, wondering what was considered an appropriate donation.  
  
"If that's what you want to give," Sara replied cryptically. After she received the money and put it in the box, she took out a new tube of bright red lipstick and applied it to her lips. "They said to do that," she answered needlessly when the men shot her surprised looks. She maneuvered herself, and planted a firm kiss on Grissom's cheek. "There you go, sir. Enjoy your day," she said, as she gently pushed him back in Greg's direction. To her benefit, Grissom looked slightly crestfallen.  
  
"Okay, can I go next?" Nick asked as he fished out two twenties and a ten from his pocket.  
  
"Fine." Sara applied the lipstick again. Everyone seriously thought that she'd give him a bigger smooch, but all he got was a lip print on his cheek like Grissom.  
  
"Hey!" Nick protested soon after, "I gave you forty more dollars than Grissom!"  
  
"And you're forty times more annoying!" Sara retorted, still seething from his jokes earlier.  
  
"Do you find me as annoying?" Greg asked in his best 'I'm cute, you can't resist me' voice.  
  
"Not really," Sara replied to their lab tech, who's attitude had always been oddly oriented.  
  
"So, if I gave you a hundred, will I get a nicer kiss?" Greg inquired, sounding disturbingly like a six-year-old.  
  
"You'll just have to take a gamble, and find out," Sara replied with a smirk. 'Two can play this game,' she thought.  
  
"Fine! This I can not miss!" Greg exclaimed decidedly, as he handed Sara his hundred dollars. And he wasn't too disappointed, considering that most of her lipstick had transferred to his lips.  
  
"Greg, man, that's a nice look on you," Warrick commented.  
  
"Yeah, man, you sure you weren't a woman in your past life?" Nick asked with another smirk.  
  
"So, Warrick, you going to donate?" Sara asked nonchalantly, knowing that he was a very private person who didn't just do things on a whim, or at least, not anymore.  
  
"Yeah, but I don't think I'll do that here," he replied, looking like a cornered animal. "I was planning to do that over by the pie throwing place. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to throw a pie in Ecklie's face."  
  
"Oh, come on, man," Nick protested, "Which is more gratifying: throwing a pie at Ecklie, and possibly missing the target, or getting to kiss Sara without the risk of her dismembering you later?"  
  
"When you put it that way, this. I guess," Warrick replied noncommittally. "But I only have twenty bucks on me. I don't think that's enough to donate for charity."  
  
"That's all you have?" Sara inquired.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"And you're ready to give it to charity?" Sara's voice had taken an awed quality to it. "All of it?"  
  
"Yeah, I guess. Haven't found a better place to put it," Warrick replied, unsure of where this line of questioning was taking them.  
  
"Then put it here," Sara commanded, almost sure that he wouldn't.  
  
He surprised her, though. "Okay," he said, as he handed the bill over to her.  
  
"Hey! Where you going?" Sara asked when he turned around and started walking away. "You still get a kiss!"  
  
Warrick turned around again. "Oh. Well, twenty isn't that much and it's for a good cause, right? Good deeds don't need a reward, right?" by that point, he knew he was babbling like a child trying to fib their way out of trouble.  
  
"Come. Here. Now," Sara commanded, leaving little, if any room for him to worm his way out of his predicament. He complied with her order. "Sit." He sat in the chair, unsure of what was going to happen next. He fully expected Sara to start lecturing him on the benefits of donating to charity, or at the opposite end of the spectrum, lecture him on how he needed to be more self-assured. What he did not expect, and neither did Nick, Grissom or Greg, was for her to perch herself on his lap, and give him the kiss that Greg had been dreaming of.  
  
Sara, when she came up for air, looked around to see the stunned faces of her male colleagues, and Warrick attempting to get his breathing under control.  
  
"Holy . . . Sara, what brought that on?" Warrick demanded breathlessly, still slightly in shock by her actions.  
  
"Yeah!" Greg and Nick said in one voice, followed by Greg saying, "And I donated five times more than he did!" Nick nodded in agreement.  
  
"Two things," she replied, "He only had twenty, and he was ready to give it all to the Boys and Girls Club. That merits a bigger prize."  
  
"And number two?" Grissom asked, after finding his voice, "You said there were two reasons," he reminded her.  
  
"He didn't annoy and tease me mercilessly, like two fine gentlemen here, and I'm not mad at him, like I am with one of you," Sara answered simply, not divulging anymore answers. She looked down at her watch quickly. "Oh would you look at the time. The carnival's over. I guess I should get this money into police headquarters." And without further adieu, she turned, picked up the moneybox, and walked away, leaving the four men staring after her in puzzlement.  
  
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And now you might be wondering why Warrick gets the biggest kiss. Well, for starters, wouldn't you be mad at Grissom for A) turning you down flat for dinner and B) giving only TEN dollars for a donation for a great cause (okay, so I don't know if Boys and Girls Club is actually a charity, but if it isn't, just pretend, okay?). And not Nick, because, face it, there are ten billion (okay, I'm exaggerating) N/S stories, and not that many other ones besides G/S. Greg gets a slightly better deal, I do admit and that's cause I love the guy. And why Warrick? He just got left over, that's all, and I thought that it would be interesting . . . But don't worry! This wasn't meant to be a shippage thing!  
  
Okay, now that I've finished explaining myself (not very well) I only have one thing to say, and that's (can you guess it!)  
  
PLEASE REVIEW!!!! 


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